Anfield Area

[hmtmaj]

The most notorious place for highway robbery is now Westminster, london.

And I thought it was Motorway Cafe's

[burkhilly]

The most notorious place for highway robbery is now Westminster, london.

[fortinian]

Highway robbers in Anfield? D'ya reckon they were the ancestors of the takeaway owners on matchdays?

In my research using late 18th/early 19th century newspapers, it's amazing how dangerous the area between Edge Hill and Old Swan was, not a month goes by without a report of someone being robbed 'near Wavertree' or 'On The Prescott Turnpike'.

I imagine most areas outside the immediate boundries of Liverpool were pretty lawless bandit country, all those rich gentlemen travelling eh? Easy pickings.

[EDIT: Ah bleeding hell, i've just remembered the newspaper cutting in which I first read the 'Hanging Fields/Gallows Link'. It's only bloody Slemen isn't it - although I suspect this one might be one of his copied... sorry 'researched' ones.]

[Samp]

I read about the triangle being a place for hangings quite some time ago.
Long before Tom Slemen came along. I have also heard of the slopes of Everton being called hangfields. Also Ann's Field. who's to say which is correct!

[fortinian]

I've seen it called Ann Field before, not Anns Field. If you look at this map here it clearly says Ann Field.

Even if it was named Ann Field it's harder to construct an etymological link between 'Hang Field' and 'Ann Field'. You'd expect it to become 'angfield' then lose the 'g' to become Anfield not gain an extra 'n'.

[fortinian]

Something else to add here: Re: Origins of Breck Road.

I'd always thought that Breck Road meant the road that followed the 'Breck' (a derivitive word of Brook or Beck - a small stream) there has always been a problem that bothered me with this idea... there has never been a stream recorded on Breck Road.

As I found myself thumbing though an Old Norse Dictionary the other day (the things i get up to eh?) I discovered the word Brekka meaning hill or slope.

I think therefore that Breck Road is actually a Viking name meaning Sloping or Hilly Road.

Let's add this to other names with Breck in them.

Breckfield Road becomes - Sloping Field Road (very similar in meaning to Hangfield (Anfield) Road)

Walton Breck Road becomes Walton Hill Road - or 'the road to the hill of the settlement of the Welshmen'.

Lower Breck Road - Lower Hill/Slope Road

All this adds to a rather interesting question: does Anfield have its origins as a Viking area?

There is hardly enough evidence to say conclusively either way but it is certainly something worth bearing in mind.

[taffy]

Something else to add here: Re: Origins of Breck Road.

I think therefore that Breck Road is actually a Viking name meaning Sloping or Hilly Road.

Let's add this to other names with Breck in them.

Breckfield Road becomes - Sloping Field Road (very similar in meaning to Hangfield (Anfield) Road)

Walton Breck Road becomes Walton Hill Road - or 'the road to the hill of the settlement of the Welshmen'.

Lower Breck Road - Lower Hill/Slope Road

All this adds to a rather interesting question: does Anfield have its origins as a Viking area?

There is hardly enough evidence to say conclusively either way but it is certainly something worth bearing in mind.

For more information about Scandinavian place names in the Merseyside area, read Viking Mersey by Stephen Harding

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/-sczsteve/

[fortinian]

For more information about Scandinavian place names in the Merseyside area, read Viking Mersey by Stephen Harding

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/-sczsteve/

It's on my rather long list of books to read. Next time i'm in the library i'll dig out a copy.